Optimal Access Point Selection and Channel Assignment in IEEE 802.11 Networks

Designing 802.11 wireless networks includes two major components: selection of access points (APs) in the demand areas and assignment of radio frequencies to each AP. Coverage and capacity are some key issues when placing APs in a demand area. APs need to cover all users. A user is considered covered if the power received from its corresponding AP is greater than a given threshold. Moreover, from a capacity standpoint, APs need to provide certain minimum bandwidth to users located in the coverage area. A major challenge in designing wireless networks is the frequency assignment problem. The 802.11 wireless LANs operate in the unlicensed ISM frequency, and all APs share the same frequency. As a result, as 802.11 APs become widely deployed, they start to interfere with each other and degrade network throughput. In consequence, efficient assignment of channels becomes necessary to avoid and minimize interference. In this work, an optimal AP selection was developed by balancing traffic load. An optimization problem was formulated that minimizes heavy congestion. As a result, APs in wireless LANs will have well distributed traffic loads, which maximize the throughput of the network. The channel assignment algorithm was designed by minimizing channel interference between APs. The optimization algorithm assigns channels in such a way that minimizes co-channel and adjacent channel interference resulting in higher throughput.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2004

Author dc:creator

• Park, Sangtae

Contributors dc:contributor

• Akl, Robert G.
• Brazile, Robert
• Tate, Stephen R.

• Wireless LANs.
• IEEE 802.11 (Standard)
• IEEE 802.11
• access point
• channel assignment
• optimization
• placement

Statement dc:rights

• Public
• Copyright
• Park, Sangtae
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 58796375
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4687/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc4687

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc4687